A follower of Charles Manson has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle a cellphone to the cult leader at Corcoran State Prison Craig Carlisle Hammond, 63, was arrested Sunday on charges of possession of an illegal communication device, attempting to bring a cellphone into a prison and conspiracy, said Terry Thornton, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabiltation spokeswoman. Hammond, a retiree, was searched and subsequently arrested at 3:35 p.m. and taken to a King County Jail, where he was released four hours later on $30,000.

SACRAMENTO -- Even though legal controversy remains over how long convicted murderers must remain in prison before a state parole board decides they can safely be released, the odds of those people seeing freedom have greatly increased under Gov. Jerry Brown. Parole release records for Brown's first two years in office show he has a track record of blocking fewer than one out of five releases recommended by the state Board of Parole Hearings. In 2011, Brown reversed releases for 71 convicts out of 412 recommended for parole.

Manuel Vasquez defends the unusual product he's selling. But not everyone's buying it. Vasquez is the 26-year-old co-owner of a boutique who produces records in his spare time. His latest release features music written and performed by convicted mass murderer Charles Manson. "I've gotten some hate mail from it. There are people not appreciating the release of music by him," he said. "People say they don't understand why I'd want to associate myself with this or why I would be interested in releasing it. " Even his parents tried to talk him out of pressing and selling the 40-minute vinyl album.

A 25-year-old woman who has been loyally visiting Charles Manson -- the nation's most notorious convicted killer who has a swastika carved into his forehead -- in prison, said recently that they are going to wed. "I'll tell you straight up, Charlie and I are going to get married," said Star, the name Manson gave the woman after she started visiting him in California's Corcoran State Prison when she was 19. "When that will be, we don't know....

Convicted murderer Leslie Van Houten will ask a state parole board Wednesday for the 19th time to be released from prison for her role in the Charles Manson murders. Van Houten, 63, was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home in Los Feliz. She has repeatedly been denied bids for parole over the last four decades. The hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the California Institution for Women in Chino.

A federal judge in Texas has ruled that the Los Angeles Police Department can have access to 40-year-old taped conversations between one of Charles Manson's most fervent followers and his late attorney to see if it can help solve more murders. U.S. District Court Judge Richard A. Schell ruled that Charles “Tex” Watson waived his right to attorney-client privilege when he allowed the lawyer to sell the tapes to an author who wrote a book on Watson. LAPD robbery-homicide detectives are seeking the tapes because they believe during the several hours of conversations Watson "may have discussed additional unsolved murders committed by followers of Charles Manson.” PHOTOS: The Manson murders Investigators believe the so-called Manson family may have been responsible for more than the seven murders they were convicted of four decades ago. Over the years, everyone from Manson himself to his prosecutors have said his followers were connected to more killings.

Early in Jeff Guinn's "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson," the first full biography of the infamous mass killer, there's a moment of unexpected and discomforting empathy. It's 1939, and Manson - 5 years old, living with relatives in West Virginia while his mother is in state prison for armed robbery - has embarrassed himself by crying in a first-grade class. To toughen him up, his uncle takes one of his daughter's dresses and orders the boy to wear it to school. "Maybe his mother and Uncle Luther were bad influences," Guinn writes, "but Charlie could benefit from Uncle Bill's intercession.

After a lengthy battle, Los Angeles Police Department detectives and prosecutors have decades-old audiotapes that could shed new light on other cases potentially connected to the Charles Manson killing rampage. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the department's elite Robbery-Homicide Division, along with Los Angeles County prosecutors, are starting to review the tapes of conversations between one of Charles Manson's most fervent followers and his late attorney to see whether they can help solve more cases from that period.

A state prisons panel on Thursday granted parole, subject to review, to a notorious killer described as a "right-hand man" to Charles Manson who was convicted in two slayings four decades ago. It marks a rare time in recent years that the parole board has recommended freedom to a member of the Manson family. But whether Bruce Davis, 69, walks out of California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo after spending more than four decades behind bars will turn on Gov. Jerry Brown, who has 120 days to review the case.

Susan Atkins, who committed one of modern history's most notorious crimes when she joined Charles Manson and his gang for a 1969 killing spree that terrorized Los Angeles and put her in prison for the rest of her life, has died. She was 61. Atkins was diagnosed in 2008 with brain cancer, which caused paralysis and the loss of one leg. She was receiving medical treatment at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla and entered hospice care in recent days. She died there at 11:46 p.m. Thursday of natural causes, said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

A federal judge Monday approved the release of videotaped testimony by President Ford, later used in the trial of Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme, who tried to assassinate him in Sacramento 37 years ago. Portions of the 20 minutes of testimony taken in Washington in 1975 were played for jurors during Fromme's trial. The Sacramento Bee obtained a copy of the tape Monday. In his testimony, Ford calmly described seeing a woman in a bright red dress at Capitol Park in Sacramento and thinking she was drawing near to shake his hand.

Early in Jeff Guinn's "Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson," the first full biography of the infamous mass killer, there's a moment of unexpected and discomforting empathy. It's 1939, and Manson - 5 years old, living with relatives in West Virginia while his mother is in state prison for armed robbery - has embarrassed himself by crying in a first-grade class. To toughen him up, his uncle takes one of his daughter's dresses and orders the boy to wear it to school. "Maybe his mother and Uncle Luther were bad influences," Guinn writes, "but Charlie could benefit from Uncle Bill's intercession.

I didn't know much about the bizarre U.S. market in "murderabilia" until I became an unwitting part of it. But I now know more than I'd like to about the buying and selling of souvenirs linked to gruesome murders. My encounter with the market came after a copy of my book, "Lost Girls," which chronicles the rape and murder of San Diego-area teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois, showed up on a website fittingly called darkvomit.com. It was autographed by the murderer. On the page opposite my dedication to his two victims, sexual predator John Gardner had written: "I'm sorry for all the pain that I have caused," and signed his name.

The cases of two convicted murderers, within the space of 48 hours, made it clear that California's handling of capital cases may need a wee bit of tweaking. On Friday, death row inmate Richard Ramirez died. He was the notorious "Night Stalker," convicted of killing 13 people and trying to kill five others and of 11 counts of sexual assault. He had spent more than half his life behind bars, mostly on death row; he died in a hospital bed in Marin County. In November, Proposition 34 on the California ballot would have abolished the death penalty.

Convicted murderer Leslie Van Houten will ask a state parole board Wednesday for the 19th time to be released from prison for her role in the Charles Manson murders. Van Houten, 63, was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 killings of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in their home in Los Feliz. She has repeatedly been denied bids for parole over the last four decades. The hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Summer is my favorite season - always has been. Partly, it's the light: slow and thick, like a glaze of honey spread across the world. Partly, it's the heat, which I feel in my joints, making me imagine I was loose-limbed again. But more than anything, it's the feeling of space, of the moment expanding, the faith that, during these three months, I might do anything. That's an adolescent's faith, to be sure, but it has lingered, as if there might be (to borrow a phrase from a favorite episode of "The Twilight Zone")

Contraband cellphones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress. Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.

What? Another record company with a Charles Manson song on its hands? Yes, and unlike Geffen Records--which has been doing its best to distance itself from the Manson composition on the latest Guns N' Roses album--this company isn't at all defensive about its track, by another hit rock band. Three years before its version of "Mrs.

After a lengthy battle, Los Angeles Police Department detectives and prosecutors have decades-old audiotapes that could shed new light on other cases potentially connected to the Charles Manson killing rampage. LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the department's elite Robbery-Homicide Division, along with Los Angeles County prosecutors, are starting to review the tapes of conversations between one of Charles Manson's most fervent followers and his late attorney to see whether they can help solve more cases from that period.